Reading, book-signing for Major Gen. John Borling

Poetry Center of Chicago presents Major General John Borling, who will hold a reading and book-signing of his new book, Taps on the Walls: Poems from the Hanoi Hilton, at 7 p.m., Wednesday, March 27, at the Chicago Cultural Center, Millennium Park Room, fifth floor.

This year marks the 40th anniversary of the release of the Hanoi Hilton POWs — and this new book from Master Wings Publishing, an imprint of the Pritzker Military Library, reveals a remarkable companion that sustained them through their darkest days: poetry.

In Taps on the Walls: Poems from the Hanoi Hilton, Borling (USAF, Ret.) shares his story and the poetry/prose he mentally composed and kept memorized during his 6-1/2-year incarceration in Hanoi. He tapped his creations, with themes very relevant to today, through thick walls to fellow POWs using a special, but forbidden, prison tap code to “make time an ally” and provide a legacy for his wife in case he didn’t survive.

The reading will be followed by a question-and-answer and book-signing.